ERIC Documents

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ERIC: Educational Research Information Clearinghouse

Who?

From 1966--2003 16 clearinghouses around the country collected information in specific aspects of education, kindergarten through college (elementary, phys ed, etc) and adult education. Each Clearinghouse and adjunct focused on a subject specialty. In 2004 ERIC was centralized.

The ERIC online system provides the public with a centralized ERIC Web site for searching the ERIC bibliographic database of more than 1.1 million citations going back to 1966. More than 107,000 full-text non-journal documents (issued 1993-2004), previously available through fee-based services only, are now available for free.

What?

Collected, indexed and abstracted: papers, conference proceedings, sample curricula, studies and journal articles. The US Dept of Education ERIC web site offers full-text of most items published 1993-2004. (These are in portable document format, .pdf. If your browser won't open them, get a free copy of Acrobat Reader, which handles these files.)

How?

Search ERIC or use EBSCOhost Masterfile (scroll down to select ERIC/Advanced Search). Use this EBSCO link if you are IN the library!
Both allow you to limit your search to journal articles (EJ), documents (ED), by date or audience. EBSCO provides full-text of many journal articles (EJ) but not of the ERIC documents (ED). Any ED (documents) not in the ERIC web can be obtained at Montclair State University and Rutgers University (Alexander Library, New Brunswick campus).
If you can wait, ask a librarian about borrowing the EJ and ED materials through inter-library loan.
ED material is often sent as microfiche. Make sure you have access to a fiche reader/printer.